World Briefing / SOUTH AFRICA

Farmer who fed man to lions freed

A white South African farmer who threw the body of a black worker he had fired into a lions' pen has been freed on parole after less than three years in prison.

Mark Scott-Crossley was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2005 for assaulting Nelson Chisale and letting lions at his game farm devour the former employee. The Supreme Court of Appeal reduced the sentence to five years, saying there was no proof Chisale had been alive when he was fed to the animals.

The Confederation of South African Trade Unions criticized the ruling. The report did not give a reason for the early release.